[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Nov. 20


CHINA:

China court reopens case of executed teenager


A court in north China Thursday opened a new trial for a teenager executed 
almost 20 years ago for rape and murder, state-run media said, in a rare 
re-examination of a possible wrongful conviction.

The 18-year-old, named Hugjiltu and also known as Qoysiletu, was found guilty 
and put to death in Inner Mongolia in 1996, but doubt was cast on the verdict 
when another man confessed to the crime in 2005.

Hugjiltu's family has been trying to prove his innocence for nearly a decade, 
according to reports, and the Higher People's Court in Hohhot officially began 
a retrial of the case on Thursday, according to Xinhua news agency.

"Any errors in the previous ruling, should there have been any, must be 
addressed," Xinhua reported the court's president as saying earlier this month.

The retrial comes just weeks after leaders of the ruling Communist Party 
pledged to strengthen the rule of law "with Chinese characteristics" - a 
concept experts caution refers to greater central control over the courts 
rather than judicial independence.

Chinese authorities regularly launch "strike hard" anti-crime campaigns, during 
which large numbers of suspects are swiftly tried and harsh sentences meted 
out.

But critics say there are numerous abuses in China's party-run legal system, 
including the widespread use of the death penalty and forced confessions.

In Hugjiltu's case, authorities interrogated the teenager for 48 hours, after 
which he confessed to having raped and choked the woman in the toilet of a 
textile factory, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported. He was executed 
61 days after the woman's death.

Then, in 2005, police apprehended Zhao Zhihong, who confessed to raping and 
killing 10 women, including the textile factory victim.

Several high-profile wrongful convictions have sparked public outrage in recent 
years.

Last year, a man who served 17 years in prison for killing his wife was 
declared innocent by an appeals court in the eastern province of Anhui.

A few months earlier 2 men who had been sentenced to death and life in prison 
in 2004 for the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl were also acquitted.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






SAUDI ARABIA:

Saudi court hands death sentences to 2 more terrorists


The Special Criminal Court in Riyadh on Wednesday awarded the death penalty to 
2 more suspects who belonged to an 86-member terrorist cell.

The court also sentenced 16 members of the cell to jail terms ranging from 6 to 
30 years and slapped a travel ban on them after their release from prison, the 
Saudi Press Agency reported.

On Monday, the court had sentenced 3 members of the cell to death. They 
included the gunman who shot dead a BBC cameraman - Irish national Simon 
Cumbers - 10 years ago. BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner was 
paralyzed in the June 2004 attack.

The court has so far given jail terms to 36 members of the cell, which was 
accused of several terrorist operations, including attacks on Riyadh's Al-Mohya 
Complex and residential compounds in Al-Khobar.

The charges against them also included joining an Al-Qaeda outfit, plotting to 
assassinate prominent Saudi figures, and killing several security officers and 
foreign residents of the country.

(source: Saudi Gazette)






TAIWAN:

Taiwan Man Faces Death Penalty For Stabbing Girlfriend 47 Times


A Taiwanese man faces the death penalty after he was indicted today, accused of 
fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and sexually assaulting her corpse in a 
"brutal and inhumane" public attack, prosecutors said.

Chang Yen-wen, 29, who was charged with murder, is alleged to have knifed the 
woman at least 47 times in a frenzied attack in a street in Taipei on September 
22 after she spurned his attempts to rekindle their romance, the district 
prosecutor's office confirmed.

Chang, who worked for a global accounting firm and is a graduate of the 
island's top university, was also indicted on the charge of "desecrating a 
corpse" after allegedly sexually assaulting the 22-year-old kindergarten 
teacher after she collapsed and died on the scene. Horrified passers-by alerted 
the police to the attack.

Prosecutors said they sought capital punishment for Chang as they allege the 
crime was premeditated because he bought a knife a week before the "brutal and 
inhumane" attack.

Violent crimes are relatively rare in Taiwan but in recent months there have 
been a number of attacks that have left the public shocked.

Last week, 60 people were indicted on murder and assault charges for allegedly 
beating a policeman to death outside a nightclub.

In July, prosecutors indicted and sought the death penalty for a 21-year-old 
college student accused of killing 4 people and wounding nearly 2 dozen others 
in a stabbing spree in the subway that shocked the island.

(source: Malaysian Digest)



PAKISTAN:

Pakistan family gets death penalty for murdering pregnant woman


4 relatives of a 25-year-old pregnant woman who bludgeoned her to death outside 
one of Pakistan's top courts were sentenced to death on Wednesday for the 
crime.

A mob of over 2 dozen, including Farzana Parveen's father and brother, battered 
her with bricks outside Lahore High Court for marrying against the family's 
wishes. Farzana had gone to the court to seek protection. Her family beat her 
while her husband, Muhammed Iqbal, begged nearby police for help. They did not 
intervene.

Iqbal later admitted that he had murdered his 1st wife to marry Farzana. He 
escaped punishment because his son forgave him. According to Pakistani law, a 
woman's next of kin can forgive her murderers.

Farzana's father, brother, cousin and another relative were sentenced to death 
and slapped with a $1,000 fine. Another cousin was sentenced to 10 years in 
prison and also fined $1,000. The sentences were handed down for 3 counts - 
murder, terrorism and the killing of an unborn baby.

So-called "honour" killings are commonplace in Pakistan but the brazen nature 
of the attack on Parveen meant the case made headlines around the world.

(source: punemirror)